# Ethel Adelaide Parker

Ethel Adelaide Parker (21 July 1886 – 1 February 1971) was an English concert organist and composer. Parker composed under a number of pseudonyms including Etelka d’Arba, Bruno d’Arba, Joan d’Arba and Joan McLeod.

## Education

Between 1905 and 1909 Parker studied at the Royal College of Music in London, and one of her tutors was Sir Walter Parratt. At a later date Parker continued her studies in Germany with Dr Karl Straube in Leipzig, and also the composer Max Reger.

## Musical career

As a concert organist Parker promoted English contemporary music in Europe, and was noted to be the first women organist to perform a solo in the celebrated Thomaskirche Saturday Motette series in Leipzig. In England Parker gave the first performance of Reger’s Fantasy and Fugue on Bach, which took place on 30 June 1910 at the Queen’s Hall in London. Parker is also credited with introducing the music of Sigfrid Karg-Elert to the British public, who composed specifically his In dulci jubilo Op 75 No 2 for Parker and dedicated it to her.
In the 1920s Parker became interested, through campanologist William Wooding Starmer, in carillon and bell music. It is believed that through the support of a Swiss millionaire, she continued her studies in performance under Antoon Nauwelaerts in Bruges. Around this time, she was known to travel Europe widely as a concert organist, often using the name Adelaide Parker.
As a composer, many leading publishers promoted the music of Parker including Novello & Co, J & W Chester, J. Curwen & Sons and Cramer Music. In writing music for the voice, she set texts by many poets including Christina Rossetti, W. B. Yeats, R. M. Rilke, as well as dedicating works to leading musicians including Elena Gerhardt and Maria Olenina-d’Alheim. Parker is often cited as being the first known women to have composed for the carillon, and letters survive between Parker and Percival Price concerning this area of interest.

## Works

The Royal College of Music houses an archive of manuscript and published scores by Parker.
| Name of work | Instrumentation | Publisher |
| Cattistock | Carillon | |
| Images Bretonnes | Carillon | |
| Three Pieces | Carillon | |
| Suite sur un vieux chant Vendéen | Carillon | |
| Thème et Variations | Carillon | |
| Christmas in the forest | Choir | Cramer Music, 1950 |
| Ave Maria | Choir | |
| Evening Hymn to The Holy Trinity | Choir | |
| Images Bretonnes | Choir | |
| Oh, what shall lift the night | Choir | |
| Tell me, my lamb of gold | Choir | |
| Variations sur un air de la rue au Moyen-Age | Harp | Editions Henn |
| Danceries | Harp | |
| Five Impressions | Harp | |
| Fantaisie fugue | Orchestra | |
| Variations sur un theme russe | Organ | J & W Chester |
| Fantaisie fugue | Organ | |
| Suite on the old London street-cry of the bellman | Organ | |
| Irrlichter | Organ | |
| Fugal Fantasy | Organ | |
| Thème et Variations in G minor | Piano | |
| Christmas eve | Soloists and choir | Cramer Music, 1957 |
| Four graces from Herrick’s Noble Numbers | Soloists and boys choir | William Elkin & Co, 1948 |
| Dainty rogues in porcelain (3 duets) | Soloists and piano | J & W Chester, 1929 |
| Two Swedish Legends after Selma Lagerlöf (tone poems) | String orchestra | J & W Chester, 1958 |
| Dream | String orchestra | |
| Why fadest thou in death | Voice and orchestra | |
| Four Songs | Voice and orchestra | |
| Frolleclaloon | Voice and piano | |
| A Fian lullaby | Voice and piano | J. Curwen & Sons, 1923 |
| Russian lullaby | Voice and piano | J. Curwen & Sons, 1925 |
| Clover | Voice and piano | J & W Chester, 1929 |
| Laudate eum, elementa, Christus natus est | Voice and piano | Novello & Co, 1938 |
| Carol | Voice and piano | J & W Chester, 1939 |
| Two songs from Herrick’s Noble Numbers | Voice and piano | William Elkin & Co, 1954 |
| Slumber Song | Voice and piano | William Elkin & Co, 1954 |
| Wayfarers’ carol | Voice and piano | William Elkin & Co, 1957 |
| December | Voice and piano | William Elkin & Co, 1957 |
| Away with us he’s going | Voice and piano | |
| Cold | Voice and piano | |
| Ist ein Schloss | Voice and piano | |
| The Lamb-Child | Voice and piano | |
| Leuchtendes land | Voice and piano | |
| Märchen | Voice and piano | |
| The New-yeeres gift | Voice and piano | |
| The Rune | Voice and piano | |
| Slumber Song | Voice and piano | |
| Zauber | Voice and piano | |
| Wayfarers’ Carol | Voice and piano | |
| Les deux enfant de roi | Voice and piano | |